Half Life 3: What Is Valve’s Big VR Announcement For Next Year?

Earlier this year, Valve confirmed they will be announcing new games next year– no, this is not a lie, nor a drill. Valve have confirmed that Valve will be announcing new VR content some time next year. “Although we’re not going to treat Dev Days this year as the place or time to make big product announcements related to the content that has been in development at Valve in virtual reality,” Greg Coomer, Valve’s Product Designer had said at Steam Days.

“I do think that when it comes time to do that next year, that nobody in this room is going to be disappointed about what we have in the works…” Now, so far so good- but what exactly could this new content be? Valve have a lot of beloved properties- but what could the new VR content be referring to? There are multiple things to consider here- references to a new Left 4 Dead and a new Half Life have been found in the Steam database multiple times (and there have been reliable leaks for both those games as well).

Then, there is the fact that Valve have hinted at a Portal VR game, with their Portal VR demo. Finally, consider that with Half Life especially, Valve apparently like to wait for big leaps in gaming tech before they commit to a new instalment in the series- and what would be a bigger leap than VR? It would put Half Life 3 in an entirely different paradigm from Half Life 2, which itself was a monumental shift forward.

So, could the new Valve VR games include a Half Life 3? I want to say yes. But at the same time, we have been waiting for so long for a new Half Life, and Valve seem to have all but given up on the franchise… I don’t think I can bring myself to hope again.